


Make It Out

by tabbytabbytabby



Series: Game of Thrones Season 8 [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Confessions, F/M, First Kiss, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, Post-Episode: s08e02 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 05:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18564814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabbytabbytabby/pseuds/tabbytabbytabby
Summary: Jaime and Brienne talk before the battle with the dead.





	Make It Out

**Author's Note:**

> The new episode had me feeling a lot of things and I just had to write something for them.

The horn sounds and the world seems to still for a moment. Then everyone seems to spring into action at once. Jaime’s heart is pounding as he follows Brienne from the room. This is it. The dead are here. There’s no more preparing.

He watches as Brienne shouts something to Podrick that has him running ahead. He knows he did the right thing knighting her. It’s something that should have been done years ago. She’s a greater fighter and far more honorable than half the men he knows. She always has been.

Now she’s marching off to fight a battle they might win. And she has no idea what really brought him back here. What’s making him stand by her in battle. It’s because he respects her, of course. There’s no one he’d rather fight side by side with. But it’s so much more than that.

He’s known that for a while now. He’s just been too big of a fool to admit it. Not anymore. He can’t let her match off towards what could be their last battle without telling her. He needs her to understand.

“Ser Brienne.”

Jaime grabs her arm, bringing them to a stop. She looks at him in confusion. He’s not sure what she sees on his face, but she has a sudden look of realization. “Is now really the time for this?”

“We might not get another chance,” he tells her. He steps closer, bringing them level. She’s still a bit taller than he is. Something that most men would hate. But he likes it.

When he speaks again, his voice is quieter. “Brienne, I need to know…”

She nods, “You have my permission, Ser Jaime.”

He smiles, “Always so formal.”

He sees a hint of a smile on her lips as he leans in. The first kiss is soft, just a tentative brush of lips. He pulls back, searching her face. The look of awe there breaks something in him. He leans in, kissing her again. The urgency of it matches the cries around them as everyone prepares for battle. He puts everything he’s feeling into the kiss, hoping she understands. He thinks that she does.

“You make it out if this alive,” he tells her.

“You too,” she replies before pulling back. “We need to go.”

He nods. They share a final look before setting off together. They don’t get far before the red haired wildling stops them. “If we make it out of this I’ll fight you for her.”

“I believe if you respect her, you should let Lady Brienne decide what she wants for herself,” Jaime tells him.

He doesn’t miss Brienne's look of approval.

Tormund looks over at her, “You love this man?”

Brienne glances at Jaime. The look of surety has his breath catching. “I do.”

“And you love her?”

Jaime doesn’t take his eyes off Brienne. Now isn't the time for denial. Not with what they're facing. “I do.”

“Then I will respect her wishes,” Tormund says. “But if you die in battle I will step in and prove I am worthy of her beauty.”

Brienne grabs Jaime by the arm and starts dragging him away. “Now you have even more reason to make it out if this alive. I refuse to be left with him. He’s very persistent.”

“He likes you,” Jaime says. “I can’t fault him for that.”

“Jaime,” she sighs, a hint of warning in her voice.

Jaime laughs. Despite knowing what they’re about to face. He has something to fight for. A reason to make it out if this war alive. He has to believe they will. This can’t be how their story ends.

When it’s all over, they gather their dead as best they can. There’s no time to mourn. No time to think about all that they’ve lost. They have to burn them or else risk their loved ones coming back as their enemy. Something none of them want.

He looks around the body strewn courtyard. Most of the bodies are those of the undead army, something he can’t help but feel relieved about. He tries not to worry when he can’t see Brienne anywhere. They’d lost each other in the middle of battle, both too focused on staying alive.

He sees blonde hair a few feet away and feels himself breath for the first time in hours. She’s kneeling on the ground next to someone. Images of all their friends and family flash through his mind as he wonders who he’s going to see there.

Tyrion? Sansa? Arya? Podrick?

He sees bright orange hair as he draws closer and he understands. Brienne looks up when she hears him approaching. There are no tears in her eyes. This isn’t the time for them. They all know that. But there is a sadness there.

“He jumped in front of me,” she tells him. “It was over before either of us could even react.”

“I’m sorry,” Jaime says. He’s not sure what else he’s supposed to say.

“I hardly knew him,” she says. “But he was always kind to me. He respected me more than most of the men I knew.”

“I think he went out the way he would have wanted to,” Jaime tells her.

“I’m not sure if that makes me feel any better,” she says.

Jaime reaches out and takes her hand. “What can I do?”

“We need to burn him with the others.”

“Who else did we lose?” he asks her.

“I’m not sure yet,” Brienne admits. “I saw Arya and Gendry sitting together in a corner somewhere. And Sansa was talking to Theon.”

“Have you seen Tyrion?”

She nods, “He walked by with Varys a few minutes ago.”

Jaime lets out a breath of relief. His brother is alive. Brienne is alive. They somehow survived. He moves closer, resting his forehead against hers. “You made it out.”

“So did you,” she says.

“What now?”

“Now we burn our dead, and we mourn them. Then we keep fighting,” she tells him. “We keep living.”

Jaime nods. He knows it won’t be that easy. The war isn’t over yet. But today proved to them that they might stand a chance. That there is hope. Right now that will have to be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos/Comments make my day. ♥  
> [My tumblr](http://tabbytabbytabby.tumblr.com/)


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